Use of NAND Flash for Hidden Memory Blocks to Store an Operating System Program

1. A method comprising: storing an operating system program in a portion of a storage medium identified as bad, but using a tag to identify that the portion is used to store the operating system program.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of storing uses a NAND type flash memory device as the storage medium.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of storing uses a hidden memory block to store the operating system program.

4. A method comprising: accessing a storage device to identify a portion of the storage area as a bad area for storing data; determining if an operating system tag is present; and loading the operating system program in the portion of the storage area if operating system identifier is present.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein loading the operating system program loads a boot routine which is used to boot a system.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein accessing a storage device accesses an external memory device to an integrated circuit.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein accessing a storage device accesses a NAND type flash memory device.

8. A memory device comprising: a plurality of memory blocks utilized to store data; a hidden memory block used to store an operating system program instead of data, the hidden memory block designated as a bad block so that data will not be written into the hidden memory block; and an identifier associated with the hidden memory block to identify that the hidden memory block contains the operating system program.

9. The memory device of claim 8 , wherein the memory blocks, including the hidden memory block, are of NAND type flash memory.

10. The memory device of claim 8 , wherein the operating system program is a boot routine to boot a system.

11. The memory device of claim 10 , wherein the boot routine includes a boot manager and at least one other boot program.